Russia

2nd PeriodThomas Moore

Luke WeirShadman Uddin

Avery LaneAndrew Zack

Introduction

Geography• Capital City: Moscow• Population: Approximately 142 million people• Size: Approximately 17,075,200 square kilometers

Saint Basil’s Cathedral - Red Square, Moscow (now a museum)

The Levels of Government

•Federal State with a republican form of government•Under constitution of December 1993

The Executive Branch• Formal Powers• Ability to issue decrees and directives without legislative

review• Must not interfere with or go against any standing laws

• Prerogative to schedule referendums• Promulgate federal laws• Veto Legislation• Appoint the Prime Minister• Submits candidates for procurator general (Chief law

enforcement officer), for justices of the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court, federal district courts, and the Superior Court of Arbitration

The Executive Branch• The Government (Cabinet)• Composed of the Premier or the Chair of the

Government• The Deputies• Ministers

• Presidential Administration• Provides staff and policy support to President• Drafts Presidential Decrees• Coordinates policy among government

agencies• Security Council (Military Affiliated)

President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev

Grand Kremlin Palace, Moscow - Home of President

The Legislative Branch•State (National) Legislature• Two-House Legislature: The Federation Council and

The State Duma

The State Duma•450 deputies•Powers of the Duma:•Confirms the appointment of the prime

minister•No-confidence vote

The Federation Council• 178 deputies (2 from each of Russia’s 89 regions)• Powers of the Federation Council• Deals mostly with issues of subnational jurisdiction

like adjustments to internal borders • Responsible for Confirming and Removing the

Procurator General and confirming justices of the Constitutional Court• Has final decision if Duma recommends removing the

president from office• ALL BILLS PROPOSED TO THE FEDERATION COUNCIL

MUST BE FIRST CONSIDERED BY THE STATE DUMA

Regional Legislatures

• Originally, each of the 89 regions elected both local governors and legislatures

The Legislative Process• Bills (draft laws) may originate from a number of

sources• Over half of the full State Duma must adopt the draft• Considered by the Federation Council• Has 14 days to place on calendar

• Conciliation Commissions work out differences in the legislation between two chambers• President can veto• 2/3 of the members must vote to override

White House - Home of Parliament until the 1993 Constitutional Crisis

Political Parties• 78 registered political parties; 4 represented in Russian

Legislature• A Just Russia• Nikolai Levichev

• Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF)• Gennadiy Zyuganov

• Liberal Democratic Party of Russian• Vladimir Zhirinovskiy

• United Russia• Dmitry Medvedev

The Judicial System

•Courts (including supreme courts and Constitutional courts) have independent review, but ultimately no influence on Government and practices• Judges are appointed by the Federation Council, and

serve for life. • There is no usage of precedent, as used in common

law legal systems

Ethnic Groups and Languages

• Russia has 160 ethnic groups which speak some 100 languages• 142.6 million people speak Russian (Official language)• 5.3 million speak Tatar• 1.8 million speak Ukrainian

Russia’s Citizens, its Society, and tha State

Luke Weir’s part of this huge fucking project; good lord this is brutal and somewhat lazy of Mr. Rumble when you consider the fact that we’ve been assigned to do exactly what he always does anyways.

Political Culture• Political Values:• Egalitarianism and collectivism• General support for liberal democratic

values• Desire for strong political leadership

• Public Opinion Towards Authority:• Glasnost (1985-1990)• Much resentment towards the government

Public Opinion Polls

More Public Opinion

Political Socialization

• Agents of Socialization:• School• Family• Religion• The media• Political parties:

Patriarch Kirill: not a friend of gay Russians

(Political?)Cleavage

• Cleavages:• Nationality• Religion• Social Class• Rural/Urban Division

• Effects

Role of the Media• The media:• biased• About 52 journalists killed

since 1992

• Censorship:• Article 29 of Russian

Constitution• Russia is 140th out of 178

countries in Reporters without Borders rankings of press freedom

Political Participation

• Typical examples:• Voting• Joining a nongovernment organization (NGO)• Protest

• Voting behavior:• Between 60-70% turnout in federal elections

• Examples of political violence:• 1999 Moscow apartment bombings• 2004 School hostage crisis/tragedy/disaster/

Women and Minorities:• Women’s role in politics• Women are homemakers• Minorities/other nationalities:• ~80% of Russia is made of ethnic Russians• Two biggest minorities, Tatars and Ukrainians, make up only

10% of populace combined

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCasuaAczKY

Pussy Riot

Political and Economic Change

Transition Into a Democracy

• The Communists- Lenin, Stalin, KhrushchevGorbachev and reform – perestroika, glasnost, demokratizatsiia, “New Thinking”• Yeltsin and The Russian FederationRadical Market Reform, New Constitution, Dissolution of Russia• PutinSoft authoritarianism

Social Movements

• Chechnya independence movement• Gay-rights movement (Controversy of Sochi Olympics)• Revival of Russian nationalism• Rise of the Muslim identity• Women’s rights

Political Change

Democracy to Soft Authoritarian State-Political centralization and Restriction on opposition

Causes of Change?

Results of Change?

Economic Changes

• Yeltsin and Shock Therapy• Economic Downturn

-Temporary Solutions • Putin’s first presidency and the economy•Medvedev and Crisis of ‘08

- Temporary Solutions?• Putin and the economy today

Political Economy

Dependence on Natural GasInsider privatization –Second Wave of Privatization and the 90’sMafia and business oligarchsPutin the ReformerMikhail Khodorkovsy-Corruption-

Russia’s Citizens

• Effects of Market Reform• Income Inequality• Political Culture of Younger Generation• New Issue –Birthrate, Poor Foreign Investment, Agricultural

Decline, Capital Flight

Global Context

Role with the Western World and Supranational Organizations-IMF

WTOVulnerability to supply and demand marketsPolitical attitudes to foreign nations

-America -Western Europe-Eastern Europe

Future attitudes?

Major influences on policymaking and implantation• Interest groups have had relatively little influence in Russia due to its

very strong executive branch and the general lack of continuity in the government.

Influence of supranational and international institutions• It holds a permanent seat (which grants it veto power) on the Security

Council of the United Nations (UN) that it gained after the Soviet Union dissolved and lost it’s seat.• Russia is an active member of numerous UN system organizations• Russia is not a part of the European Union and there are not currently

any notable plans to change that fact.

Putin and the world

• Putin has criticized a number of countries and their leadership during his tenure as Russia’s chief leader and said the United States is prone to "almost uncontained hyper use of force in international relations“.• Tensions between Putin and American high leadership have been

tense over the past year due to the recent controversy surrounding former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and the asylum that Putin and Russia granted him and arguments over foreign policy having to do with Syria and Iran.

Economic performance

• Russia has a market economy and the eighth largest economy in the world by GDP • The income tax being a flat tax on individuals of about thirteen

percent (This policy was instituted in 2001 to create a simpler tax code). • Oil, natural gas, metals, and timber products account for the

overwhelming majority of Russia’s exports and these allowed them to pay off most of their national debt in 2006 leaving them one as having one of the lowest amounts of debt to foreign powers for a major country.

Social Welfare

• The 1993 constitution directly states that “The Russian Federation is a social State whose policy is aimed at creating conditions for a worthy life and a free development of man” and is one of the few countries to directly establish itself as this.• There is no minimum wage in Russia but instead there is a statutory

minimum wage that is less than three fourths of the monthly minimum to be counted as being above the poverty line.

Civil liberties, rights, and freedoms

• Protest strikes against government economic and social policy, solidarity strikes, and strikes to demand union recognition are illegal in Russia and protests in general are usually contained or stopped by the government before.• Starting at the end of 2011 and stretching into 2013, a large scale

protest broke out across the country; this protest ended inconclusively.

Environment

• Russia is the largest country in the world • The country spans nine different time zones.• Russia is primarily subarctic in temperature but there are a few areas

prone to extremely high temperatures such as the coastal areas that border the Black Sea or the Indian Ocean.• There is a large diversity of animals.

Population and migration/immigration• Ha population of a mere one hundred and forty three million people

and is only beginning to recover from the disarray and death that the collapse of the Soviet Union brought upon the nation.• The country experienced it’s greatest number of births since the

dissolution of the Soviet Union in 2009 and they topped that number in 2012.• In 2006 immigration laws were restructured

Terrorism

• The two most notable incidents of terrorism in the history of the Russian federation are the 1999 Russian apartment bombings in which almost 300 people were killed in primarily Moscow and was partially responsible for the start of the Second Chechen War and there is Moscow theater hostage crisis of 2002 where approximately forty Chechens took over eight hundred Russians hostage and the Russian government was able to kill all of the terrorists but in the process was responsible for the deaths of over a hundred hostages due to the use of a poisonous gas.

Corruption

• Russia is noted as being among the most corrupt countries in the world and the second most corrupt country in Europe (after Ukraine) according to the Corruptions Perceptions Index.• The fall of The Soviet Union led to a massive amount of corruption

popping up in the country to fill the void left by the government and both violent crime and organized gangs rose in number and influence.